Jumbotron - Wall Sized TV
I've always wondered what it would take to build a wall sized TV, a Jumbotron, type stadium scoreboard. Surely, it can't be too hard. Breaking the display up into small manageable chunks and then just stacking them together.
Size
My initial thoughts were to use RGB LED matrix components. These are small squares made up of 64 RGB LEDs in an 8x8 matrix. So, doing the math...
Given that an RGB Matrix is 60mm x 60mm, and cost about $30 each...
| Resolution (pixels) | Number of Modules (WxH) | Modules Total | Display Size (m) | Cost $ | |
| HDTV | 1920 x 1080 | 240 x 135 | 32400 | 14.4 x 8.1 | $972,000 |
| 1280 x 720 | 160 x 90 | 14400 | 9.6 x 5.4 | $432,000 | |
| PAL | 720 x 576 | 90 x 72 | 6480 | 5.4 x 4.32 | $194,400 |
| VGA | 640 x 480 | 80 x 60 | 4800 | 4.8 x 3.6 | $144,000 |
| QVGA | 320 x 240 | 40 x 30 | 1200 | 2.4 x 1.8 | $36,000 |
Using RGB Matrix components, I've had to reduce the size of the display to Quarter VGA resolution. That's 1.8m tall. Anything else wont fit.
Cost
Ouch! Even the smallest screen uses $36,000 worth of RGB Matrix modules. I'm sure in that quantity I could get a discount. This still doesn't take into account any driving electronics.
Bandwidth
Dang. How do I calculate this? How do I send the data to each component. This is getting too hard.
Next
A projector is starting to sound real good. Maybe I can start looking at sticking together small LCD or OLED displays.